Minogue

An interesting piece for Trove Tuesday this week. From February 4, 1882, The Portland Guardian reported on some hush-hush weddings in the district with the information provided by an “esteemed occasional contributor”. The weddings were happening but the wedding bells were not ringing. Not only that, one groom baked his own wedding cake.

An article such as this is most useful to the researcher. It has names, place names, marriages and religious denomination

I think Father O’Donoghue might have been ready for a lie down. All those weddings and he was doing his own housework after his housekeeper, Miss Lavery was also “united in the holy bond”. In case you were wondering, Miss Lavery’s new husband, John Quinlivan, did not bake the wedding cake just because he fancied himself as a cook… he was a baker.

Like this:

I had considered “R’ week of the Gould Genealogy Alphabet Challenge an opportunity to trot out my Riddiford family as they are, strictly speaking, not a Western District Family. However, after initially being excited at the prospect of bringing together their rich history, I soon realised I had too much information to give a summary while still doing justice to the many stories I have found.

Now how am I going to tell you about the family of fabric workers from Gloucestershire, dating back to at least the 1500s, who spread across England, into Wales and then Canada, United States and Australia. I really want to tell you about the criminals, including Dinah Riddiford, the oldest woman to hang in England in the 18th and 19th century and the convicts transported to Van Diemens Land, Sydney and Norfolk Island.

Or there is the Riddifords that immigrated to Australia arriving to South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. These included one of the most renown Australian Riddifords, Walter Riddiford of Broken Hill. The former miner and mayor of Broken Hill had the Riddiford Arboretum in the town named in his honour.

I also would like to tell you about my Riddiford line including my ggg grandfather, Charles Riddiford, a tailor and policeman who died in the Saunderton Union Workhouse at Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. And his son Thomas Cooke Riddiford, a some time publican and butcher who immigrated with his family to Canada in search of a better life, only to return to Buckinghamshire a few years later.

I will, however, get the chance to tell you the story of my grandfather and great-grandfather, Percy and Tom.

While still a baby, Tom’s parents Thomas Cooke Riddiford and Emma Piddington moved the family to Clerkenwell, London where Lily Beatrice was born in 1877. Again, the move seems to have been another failed attempt to find a better life for the family, as they had headed back to Cuddington by 1879. Thomas senior resumed his role as publican of the Crown Inn. Emma’s father, a victualler, also had links to that pub and others in the district. In 1883, Emma died aged 34 and Thomas was left with eight children to care for, with three under five.

How does a family manage after such a tragedy. By the 1891 UK Census, consequences of Emma’s death had become evident. On the night of the Census, the two youngest children, Ernest Arthur, 11 and William Leonard, 10, were at the Aylesbury Union Workhouse. Youngest daughter Florence, 12, was living with her grandmother, Jane Piddington and Lily, aged 14 was a servant for a Aylesbury hairdresser. My great-grandfather Tom, then 16 was boarding at the Plough Inn, Haddenham , working as an apprentice butcher.

Where was Thomas senior by this time? He had moved on. To Manchester in fact, working as a cab driver and living with his new wife, Sarah Browne and their four-month old son, Arthur. The saddest part of this stage in their lives is that I have never been able to find any trace of Ernest beyond the 1891 Census and his time in the Workhouse. My grandfather named a son after his younger brother. A tribute maybe?

Tom junior got on with his life, making a move to London working as a fully qualified butcher. He married 18-year-old Londoner Caroline “Queenie” Celia Ann Kirkin on February 7, 1896 at St BarnabusChurch, Kennington, London. By the time of the 1901 UK Census, the couple were living at 169 Cromwell Road, Kensington with three sons. Tom was working for himself as a butcher .

In 1903, the family suffered a loss with the death of two-year old Horace. Percy Ronald Riddiford, my grandfather, was born in Leytonstone in 1904 before a break of six years when Reginald was born in 1910 at Edmonton. That is where the family were living at the time of the 1911 UK Census, 54 Raynham Road, Upper Edmonton. Oldest son William was 14 and working as a metal polisher, Cyril 13, was attending school and working as an errand boy for a greengrocer. Father Tom was still a butcher, working for Universal Stores.

The former Riddiford home, possibly their last in England, is the cream house with red flower baskets.

Something must have nagged at Tom. A feeling like his father before had felt. How could he make a better life for his family? In 1906, he had travelled alone to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on what appears to have been a reconnaissance trip, but he returned to London. In 1912, Tom’s cousin Aubrey Frank Riddiford immigrated to Australia, settling at Heyfield in Gippsland. This may have been the catalyst for Tom to pack up the family and sail to Australia aboard the “Commonwealth” arriving in Melbourne on September 15, 1913. Many of the passengers were Assisted Immigrants and I would assume the Riddfords were among them.

The Riddifords moved to Smeaton, just north of Ballarat. Lillian Ivy, the only girl in a family devoid of women, was born in 1914. War broke out and in 1915 Bill enlisted for his new country, followed by Cyril in 1916 and Ern in 1918. Bill was hit by an Army ambulance in France and was sent home an invalid in 1917.

This photo is very special because of the circumstances in which I came to have it. Mum and I visited an antique shop at Newlyn, north of Ballarat. We spotted some old photos with the penciled name “Riddiford” on the cardboard frames. There were three, including the family photo and a wedding photo of my grandfather and his first wife Mavis McLeish. The shop owner was able to tell us how he acquired them, but it’s a long story.

Thomas passed away in 1957 aged 81 and Caroline in 1962 aged 83. They are buried at the Ballarat New Cemetery.

The boys and Lillian married, and all but Bill had children. But there were few descendants as the seven children produced only 16 grandchildren, seven of them by my grandfather! Of those, there were five girls and nine boys. Seven of those boys were my grandfathers!

The most successful of Tom and Caroline descendants to date has been Ern’s son Leonard Riddiford. Len gained a scholarship to Melbourne High School and then studied physics at Melbourne University. During the late 1940s, he travelled to Birmingham to work on the world’s first synchrotron under Sir Mark Oliphant’s guidance, while completing his PhD at Birmingham University.

To think the Riddifords were the last branch I researched. As they arrived in 1913 and with my main interest being 19th century Australian history, I considered them newbies. But when I did seriously begin researching the name I couldn’t stop, not returning to research my other families for months. The research experience was also very different from my other families. While I have little information on my Victorian pioneer families prior to their departure from England, I have easily found information on the Riddifords from a variety of sources.

I have also had the pleasure of tracking my grandfather and great-grandfather right through to the 1911 UK census, when my other families left soon after the 1851 Census. It has also given me a greater understanding of English history, geography and records.

The Riddifords of New Zealand consumed a lot of my time and Papers Past got a work out. There are over 54,000 “Riddiford” matches at the New Zealand newspaper archive compared to 3449 on the same search at Trove and I have spent months just on this branch trawling through articles and books about the history of New Zealand.

Although I still have some brick walls, I can safely say that Riddifords everywhere are related. Like a jigsaw all the pieces have come together to form a picture of a family who today can trace their links back to those early Gloucestershire cloth makers and, if my theory is correct, back to the Flemish cloth workers who arrived in Gloucestershire from the 1300s-1500s. That is another facet of the tale I had intended to share.

A book on the Riddiford family history would be the best way do the stories justice. I have even considered a One-Name study or at the very least, a blog. I don’t think I can manage any of those options at the moment. While writing Western District Families has given me an outlet to for most of my families, it has also presented a problem. My Riddiford research has fallen into a state of neglect.

RIDDIFORD TRIVIA

It is was not only genealogists who welcomed online records. Tabloid newspapers soon became fans too. This was evident in 2010 when a journalist wrote on the ancestry of Kylie Minogue. Numerous newspapers and magazines ran with the story chiefly because Kylie had not one but several criminal ancestors. Who were they? Well they were Riddifords! Yes that’s right Kylie and Dannii Minogue are Riddiford descendants.

Many Riddifords knew this prior to 2010 and I had myself read that the Kylie and Dannii’s mother was a Riddiford. It was actually her grandmother Millicent Riddiford, one of the Welsh Riddifords. Millie arrived in Australia in 1955 with her husband Denis Jones and their children. By my calculations that would make the Minogues my 7th cousins, as we share 6 x great grandparents Thomas Riddiford and Arabella Trottman. Distant I know, but the 8-year-old research assistant is very proud of his link, even if the kids at school won’t believe him.

I would like to trace the Minogue line to see if Kylie and Dannii descend from the Minogue family, pioneers of Cape Bridgewater in south-west Victoria. They too may have Western District Families.

Call it a family myth, but another piece of trivia Riddifords like to hang their hat on, is the link between Ronnie Barker and L.E Riddiford Grocers in Thornbury Gloucestershire. The story goes that while Barker was filming in Thornbury, he was so inspired by the grocers store in High Street that he created the show Open All Hours. If you look at the L.E.Riddiford website you will understand how this comparison may have come about.

MY FAVOURITE RIDDIFORD

This would be Edward Joshua Riddiford, born in the Hutt Valley, Wellington, New Zealand in 1842, son of Daniel Riddiford and Harriet Stone. Educated in Australia at Scotch College, Melbourne, Edward spent time on cattle stations in Queensland. He often visited Australia and on at least one occasion bought stock from the Learmonths of Ercildoune near Ballarat.

The reason I particularly like Edward Joshua Riddiford is for the relationships he forged with the Maori people. This quote from Edward’s biography by Roberta Nicholls for Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand sums him up well:

“At Te Awaiti and Orongorongo Edward Riddiford interacted constantly with the local Maori population, as he had done when he was a child. He spoke their language, employed them, shod their horses, and bartered domestic products, foodstuffs and clothing for crops and wild pork. He played cards and drank with the men; he slept with the women. Out of admiration for his forceful leadership, commanding personality, and physical prowess the Maori called him ‘King’. Because of his influence, Riddiford was able to acquire Maori land for leasehold or freehold on favourable terms.” (from the biography of Edward Joshua Riddiford, by Roberta Nicholls, Te Ara – The Encylopedia of New Zealand)

THE RIDDIFORD FAMILY ON FACEBOOK

If you are a Riddiford descendant you are more than welcome to join our Facebook group. Search “Riddiford Family” at Facebook and you will find us. There are 130 Riddifords from all over the world. Many have commented on how they thought were the only Riddifords, rarely coming across others with the same surname. That’s what I used to think growing up in Hamilton in the 70s and 80s. Mum, Dad and I were the only three Riddifords anywhere in the world except for Grandpa and Grandma Riddiford and my uncles in Ballarat. How wrong we were!

Like this:

I enjoy finding stories of pioneer women, as they give me some idea of the lives lived by my own pioneering female ancestors. March Passing of the Pioneers introduces a plucky pioneer, Elizabeth Cole. Elizabeth and another pioneer, Annie Alexander both made their mark in roles not traditionally considered the domain of women. Among the passing gentleman, I enjoyed the story of John McClounan, a well-travelled pioneer.

Mr John Lang CURRIE: Died 11 March 1898 at St Kilda. John Currie was a Western District pastoralist. He was born in Selkirkshire, Scotland in 1818 and came to Australia in the 1840s and purchased Larra Estate near Camperdown in 1844. He later bought Tintanga and Gala Estates. He bred merino sheep known for the high quality of their wool. For more information, his biography is on the Australian Directory of Biography site.

John McCLOUNAN: Died 2 March 1902 at Green Lake. John McClounan was born in Scotland in 1832 but left when he was twenty-one. But not straight to Australia. He first travelled to America where he spent seven years and then on to New Zealand for around six years. He and his brother, his travelling companion, then moved to the goldfields of N.S.W. and then to Victoria and Deep Lead near Stawell. They gave up on mining and moved to Green Lake to farm. It was on this property John died, forty years later. He was unmarried.

Isabella SPALDING: Died March 1907 at Warrnambool. Isabella Spalding was “another pioneer “Mother of Israel”” lost to the Western District. Aged ninety-one, her husband, James Davidson had died forty-six years before and according to the obituary, she “trained up five sons and four daughters to man and womanhood”

John Henry OLIVER: Died 23 March 1909 at Horsham. John Oliver was the brother-in-law of Jonathon and Reuben Harman. The obituary states John arrived in Melbourne with his family in 1848. It was in fact 1849 aboard the Courier. John had spent time around Byaduk where his family settled, however, he bought land at Sailors Home near Dimboola in the early 1870s. After a stroke, John did return to Byaduk trying to regain his health, but he eventually returned to the Wimmera to live out his last months.

William Snaith WARD: Died 14 March 1913 at Ballarat. On arrival at Geelong in 1857, William Ward headed straight for the goldfields of Ballarat. He mined the “Hit and Miss” shaft at Creswick before taking time of mining to run the coach on the Ballarat-Buninyong Road. The lure of gold was too great and he headed to the goldfields of N.S.W. and one time drilled for coal in Gippsland.

Margaret CAMPBELL: Died 10 March 1914 at Casterton. Margaret arrived at Portland with her parents in 1855 after sailing aboard the Athletae. She married Donald Ross in 1857 when she was around twenty-six. They moved to Hamilton, then Sandford before settling in Casterton on the corner of Jackson and Clarkes Street in the house both Margaret and Donald died about fifty years later.

James FERGUSON: Died March 1914 at Beulah. Scottish born James was one of the early settlers at Beulah and was known around the town as “The Laird”. He was one of the first representatives of the newly formed Karkarooc Shire in 1896. In 1908, he travelled to England and visited the place of his birth in Scotland.

Dugald MAIN: Died 9 March 1916 at Ballarat. Dugald arrived in Geelong aboard the Star of the East in 1854 and then settled in Ballarat. He was a builder by trade and sat on the committee of the Ballarat Orphan Asylum.

Alexander McKAY: March 1919 at Carlton. Alexander, formerly of Mortlake, was a Scot through and through and was a keen participant in Highland games throughout the district. He was an excellent player of the pipes and excelled at the heavy lifting events of the games, such as the caber toss.

Edmond DWYER: Died 14 March 1930 at Condah. Edmond at ninety-two was the last of the pioneers to arrive on the General Hewitt in 1856. He initially went in search of gold near Beaufort at the Fiery Creek diggings, before turning to road contracting at Portland. He worked the road from Portland to Hamilton for many years.

Mary McDONALD: Died 4 March 1932 at Hotspur. Mary McDonald was a very old pioneer when she passed away in 1932. She was born in the Isle of Skye in 1838 and was a teenager when she arrived at Portland with her parents in 1853 aboard the New Zealand. She married Archibald McLean in 1862 and they settled at Hotspur and raised eight children.

Mary Jane JONES: Died March 1932 at Portland. Mary Jane Jones was born in Portland in 1859. She first married a Mr Jennings and they had two sons before she married Alfred Fredericks. They had a further six children.

Martha RIGBY: Died 11 March 1934 at Hamilton. Born in Lancashire, Mrs Jackson arrived at Portland with her parents, John and Sarah Rigby, in 1859. They settled at Heywood where she married John Jackson. They later moved to Hamilton. Mrs Jackson left a large family of ten children, thirty-two grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren (this was reported as seven great-great-grandchildren, so they either forgot the great-grandchildren or it was meant to read great-grandchildren).

Emma HOLMES: Died March 1935 at Drik Drik. Emma was a knitter. She knitted during the Great War for the troops and later for the Methodist Babies Home at South Yarra. Emma arrived at Portland as a seven-year-old in 1852. She married William Mullins and they settled at Drik Drik, with Emma considered to be the first white woman to settle there. Surely a tough time for a new bride.

Annie Gray ALEXANDER: Died 14 March 1937 at Toorak. Annie Alexander was born near Beechworth around 1861. She married Henry William Witton in the early 1880s. They took up residence at Dimboola in the 1890s. After Henry’s death, Annie did something a little different to some of the pioneer women I have written of before. She published the Dimboola Banner newspaper until 1918.

Maria Jane TAYLOR: Died 20 March 1939 at Portland. Maria Taylor was an active member of the Myamyn community even up until months before her death at aged ninety. She was born at South Portland and later married John Treloar at Myamyn where they lived out their lives. Mrs Treloar had a large family of thirteen, eight of whom were still living at the time of her death.

Elizabeth COLE: Died March 1942 at Bostocks Creek. What a great pioneer Elizabeth Cole was. Born at Poplar, London in 1845, she came to Australia with her parents in the early 1850s. She married Alexander Dalziel at Lethbridge in 1862. At the time of her death, Elizabeth and Alexander had 120 descendants including sixty-five great-grandchildren. What got me about Elizabeth was she was that she had been a bullock driver and one with great skill. She also had memories of Eureka, could recall Lethbridge as a canvas town and the slab huts of Port Fairy and considered kangaroo a delicacy. In her later years, she enjoyed listening to that modern contraption, the wireless.

Mary MURRAY: Died 17 March 1944 at Hamilton. Mary’s father was an overseer for Edward Henty at Muntham where she was born. At the time, she was the first white child born at Muntham. At some time, she married Mr Hallam and had many great pioneering stories.

Jean EDGAR: Died March 1947 at Harrow. Jean was another wonderful pioneer who had been in Victoria for ninety years. She arrived aboard the Severn which carried another great pioneer, the thoroughbred King Alfred, one of Australia’s early champion sires.

The Portland Guardian obituaries from August recognized several residents with very early links to the Portland district. It is well worth reading their obituaries in full.

Robert HEAZLEWOOD: Died 3 August 1892 at Portland. Robert was one of Portland’s oldest residents at the time of his death. He had been in Portland for around 40 years arriving from Tasmania where he had resided since age 16. Robert ran a farrier business and was considered the best of his trade in the town.

Thomas KEAN: Died 8 August 1892 at Portland. Thomas arrived in Melbourne in 1843 and went to Portland in 1845 to take charge of the Customs boat. He did leave for a time when he caught “yellow fever” and joined the hunt for gold. Unsuccessful, he returned to Portland to resume his position on the Customs boat. and was also a Councillor on a few occasions.

Frederick SAUNDERS: Died 11 August 1914 at Narrawong. At eighty-eight years old, Frederick Saunders had been in Australia for eighty-three years.

Francis ROBERTS: Died 5 August 1920 at Orford. Francis was born in Tasmania and came to Victoria as a nine-year-old. He spent time at the Firey Creek diggings and selected land at Broadwater where he farmed for the most part of his life.

Eliza Ann MALSEED: Died 13 August 1920 at Myamyn. Eliza Malseed epitomized the pioneering women of the south-west. She arrived in Portland from Ireland with her brothers, later marrying a cousin, James Malseed. She and her husband, along with a small group of pioneering families, forged a life on unsettled land around Cape Bridgewater. She was remembered as widely read and extremely charitable. She was eighty-five when she died.

John Read HEDDITCH Died 12 August 1927 at Cape Bridgewater. The Portland Guardian reported that John was a descendant of the Hedditch family who arrived in Adelaide in 1837 aboard The Eden. Also, John was apparently the first white child be born at the Henty brothers’ Bridgewater run. He was born in 1847.

William Henry MILLS: Died August 1931 at Trafalgar. William’s obituary is an interesting one, not only for its insight into early Australian history, but it demonstrates the need to check the “facts” presented. William was born in Port Fairy in 1848 and remained there before moving to Gippsland in the late 1870s. His father was credited as being one of the early discoverers of the south-west of Victoria, arriving in 1825, two years before the Hentys. The obituary reports that William’s grandfather was the secretary to “Captain Blyth (sic) the then Governor of Victoria”. Of course, the obituary writer was talking of Captain William Bligh, whose official title was Governor of New South Wales. Captain Bligh did have a nineteen-year-old secretary by the name of Peter Mills.

Arthur Harold SUTTON: Died August 1935 at Portland. This is a most glowing obituary and includes a description of the funeral service. Arthur was only fifty-three at the time of his death, which shocked Portland. His parents were Strathdownie pioneers, where Harold was born. He served in WW1, ran a successful wool export business and served on the Portland Council. Over 500 mourners were at his funeral, with over 100 cars (remember this is 1935) following the cortege. This is an extensive obit which includes details of his children.

Michael James MINOGUE: Died August 1935. Michael was the youngest son of Mr and Mrs Simon Minogue early pioneers of Portland. A natural horseman, he at one time trained thoroughbreds.

Frederick William BILSTON: Died August 1935 at Sandford. Frederick was the son of Thomas and Annie Bilston who arrived in Victoria in 1836. Another son, George Yarra Bilston was reportedly the first white child born in Melbourne. A sister born in 1840, was claimed as the first white child born on the Glenelg river. Frederick was born in Heywood in 1849 while his parents were running the Heywood hotel. He trained horses in his early life with the likes of Adam Lindsay Gordon. He then became a bootmaker and then a carrier. An expert blade shearer, Frederick would ride to N.S.W to work sheds. His obituary includes stories of the 1851 bushfires, bushranger Frank Gardiner and high-jumping.